I am water this thing diligently and have fertilized it.

Upon closer inspection, I determined this is a Norway Maple. It is about 2.5-3" diameter and about 9 feet tall.

It is positioned in a place where it will shade our home from the afternoon sun, but it will also tower over one of our flower beds.

My concerns are:

1. Will this tree live?

2. Being a Norway Maple, should I just cut it down and replace it? I don't want it to shade out my flower beds and grass too much.

3. It is invasive. I don't want to contribute to the harming of the natural environment

4. The cost. While I did not plant this tree, it would cost me about $150 to replace it with a small 1.5-2" diameter tree. I am already expecting to spend about $500-700 on trees for next year.

5. I hate to just kill a tree to kill a tree. It's got some pretty severe chlorosis right now and it's such a young tree.

So my options are:
Leave it, hope it lives
Cut it down (This year? Next spring?)
Transplant it to an area on my property that's out of the way, won't kill my grass much and far away from my beds

What do I put in its place? Zone 5. Our subdivision is ~5 years old and I would love to have something grow quickly.

Thanks for the help

you need to call your county extension office.. and ask how to go about getting a soil test done by your state Ag college .. thats the one that ends in STATE ... as in MI state.. MO state.. etc ...

your tree is severely stressed.. does not have sufficient root mass.. and your leaves are scorching .. in the extended heat and drought ..

unless you show me a picture.. that is my opinion ...

i hate maples.. i vote you kill it.. no guilt.. its a carp tree ... and norway is the absolute worst ... and within a decade .... even grass will die under it ...

and if you pay .. more than $25 bucks for a named 5 foot maple .. you are wasting money ... though i would recommend oak.. for most of z5 ... mine in MI.. grew 3 to 5 feet per year.. and that is about as fast as any GOOD tree ... really do not look at anything listed as FAST GROWING ... fast to grow .. fast to disease .... fast to shedding large part.. fast to die ..

GIANT transplants .. take so many years to regrow the lost root mass ... and a 5 foot .... .75 to one inch tree.. especially maple.. will outgrow ... a 15 foot 2 inch caliper.. in the next 5 years ..

with 700$.. i could cover about 3 acres in trees .. in 5 years ..... buying smaller .. establishing faster and thriving faster ..

when a tree can live 50 to 100 years ... there is no instant gratification.. and a few years longer.. for a GOOD TREE.. is a prime decision point ...

they will also be cheaper.. because you could do it yourself.. rather than have to waste money on having pro's with big machines do it ...

z5.. is not descriptive enough.. we need a big city name...

the next proper planting time.. is either fall or spring.. depending where you are.. so you have plenty of time to learn ....

trees are PROPERLY planted in DORMANCY ... it reduces stress SIGNIFICANTLY ...

if you were to invest some time.. to read thru 4 or 5 pages of posts.. you will have this all explained.. repeatedly ... and though you can google it.. this would be a great resource for a knowledge base ... [the problem with a search engine.. being too much unfocused info .. we will repeat stuff.. so you start to get a flavor of the important parts] ..

speaking of which.. we generally refer to brandons bible.. as a great base planting guide ... see the link

i wish you luck ...

ken

ps: invasive .... yeah!!! .. the neighbor has one.. i kill a couple hundred a year in my yard.. i hate them with the passion of a million burning suns.. and if give me a penny.. i will tell you how i really feel .. hell i will give you the penny.. if you will just listen again .. lol ..

Here's a picture of the tree itself. I will post replies with more

The closest big city to me would be Milwaukee, WI. I live north of there. We are hit terrible with drought right now. Haven't had a drop of rain in probably 8-9 weeks. Although the rest of my trees are doing well- watering everything.

I am planning on getting a Swamp White Oak next year to help give me some shade in the backyard, and one or two American Hornbeam. I'd like to replace this maple tree, but I am not sure what (the oak maybe? Will that shade my beds/grass too much? if the oak then what for the backyard shade?)

I was planning on buying from a local nursery, unfortunately the smallest size is 1.5-1.75" trunk, which runs about $75-$150 depending on the tree.

I thought maybe chlorosis since it did have green in the veins early on. Now those leaves are turning as shown here.

If it's scorching, is that a worse prognosis?

It's just stressed from being transplanted during the hottest, driest, WEIRDEST weather year we've had in many decades.

It looks pretty good, actually. That leaf spot is something going around this year here in Michigan, too, I don't know what it is but EVERY Norway Maple has it. It is basically a cosmetic problem, not really going to hurt the tree.

I think your tree is just fine and should be great next year. Just continue to water until Mother Nature decides to take pity upon us and change her ways. You certainly could treat with an iron and mineral supplement, it can't hurt. But I suspect that the pale yellow color is mainly just due to the fact it lost part of its root system and isn't taking up nutrients at the rate the top needs. That will pass with time and growth of new roots.

It's a nice tree. Norway Maple, yes, does have some issues down the road with thick mats of surface roots. But you can work around that in the future, instead of grass try a tough groundcover like Lamium under there, and instead of flower beds you can always do container gardens. I think it would probably be a good 15-20 years at least before you face root competition issues.

I certainly wouldn't cut it at this point. Save the $150 to apply to something else. Best of luck.

Like when Michigan banned the sale of Purple Loosestrife back in the 1990's? Forty years after it had already spread here? About 20 years later, I can't go buy a 'Morden Pink', but there is just as much of the wild stuff as ever.

Pointless to ban something that is already here. More "feel good" politics enacting another stupid law that will do nothing.

I'm of the belief that you can educate people, but the choice should still be up to them.

Next spring and prior to the trees leafing out and when the ground has thawed (right at that moment) spread all purpose granular fertilizer a few inches away from the trunk and about 1 foot beyond the dripline of the tree. Then, again, water it deeply 1x per week thru the end of summer until leaf drop.

If after two years in the ground it doesn't improve, then I'd say there is a problem with uptake in the roots. If serious drought continues with combined heat for several years forward, you may continue the advice I'm providing as to when a time comes that the tree isn't being stressed so much... which gives you time to evaluate the situation, futher. Time itself, may be the simple answer, here.

Dax

The picture I took of this tree faces north. To the south of the tree is a red maple, very young about 2" diameter. This is about 35-45 feet from the Norway.

To the NE of the Norway we plan to plant a Swamp White Oak (again, 35-45 feet away) next spring.

I imagine the canopy on the maple and oak will get quite big eventually (15-25 years, but still) and we don't want it to look like a giant shade blanket is cast over 1/2 of our yard. We've decided to replace the Norway with a smaller tree- perhaps an American Hornbeam. With a smaller tree in between I think that balances things out nicely, and the Hornbeam is a natural tree to the area

If we keep the maple, yes, I won't have to deal with shade or root issues for 20 years or so. But I or whoever is living here will have to eventually, and that's a headache that I just don't want to deal with. Why not plan ahead.

What boggles my mind is the previous owners literally planted it 7' from the corner of the home in the flower bed. What on earth were they thinking?

We are also moving a crabapple tree next year from opposite end flower bed (again 7' from the house) and extending the flower bed and putting a dogwood tree in. Not sure what to do with the crabapple. I think it is a Donald Wyman, but I can't be sure. I may relocate that to the edge of my property so I can still enjoy the flowers but not have to worry about the fruit.

What they were thinking was that it would grow straight up like a flagpole and never sprout one side branch until it cleared the roof, at which point it would magically produce a thick wide canopy to shade their home and save them thousands of dollars in cooling costs.

They were wrong ;>

Actually, seven feet is pretty generous by many folks standards- I moved into a home with a baby magnolia planted less than seven inches away from the foundation.

What got me into trees in the first place was when I originally moved into my house, I was shocked to hear chainsaws going in the woods one morning. To my surprise, I saw them taking down a bunch of maples. The first thing that popped into my head was that they were looking to develop the land I just moved to be next to and I was livid. And I, too, hated the idea of cutting down trees of any kind at that time.

When I eventually learned they were Norway Maples and the impact they were having on this rare protected section of woods, I was soon volunteering to assist in their removal.

Sounds like your father is of the same mindset I was. I'm sure, with a little bit of info on this particular tree and how it will potentially crowd out the native species that make that particular woods special in the first place, he can be swayed against transplanting it.

They have incredibly dense and aggressive canopies with an allelopathic root zone where nothing grew except for Vinca minor and other Norway maple seedlings. When a Norway maple comes down it's like God opened the heavens and said "let there be light". Very weedy trees that make seedlings everywhere and I've read it's the only invasive plant species that can invade a mature forest. This tree is a prohibited plant in Mass.

Maybe the gold cultivar would be less aggressive?

+oM